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Monday, February 1, 2016

Homunculus Res - Come Si Diventa Cio Che Si Era

It’s been three years since we’ve heard some fantastic
Canterbury music from the mind of Italian group, Homunculus Res. They came back
last year with a follow up to 2013’s debut album, Limiti all’eguaglianza della Parte con il
Tutto with a second album called, Come
si diventa cio che si era. The AltrOck label have never disappointed me of
Italian Prog, and the Rock In Opposition movement and
for me Homunculus Res show no sign of stopping here to prove they can take it
up a notch in the Canterbury tales with amazing results.

When you mix those three ingredients together, it’s an
interesting, dazzling, and out of this world combination that the band
themselves bring into more of what’s to come. The lyrics have a whimsical,
ironic, and amusing sense of humor and while the concept is based around a city
hospital, it’s almost as if what to expect when you enter inside the emergency
room to meet insane, weird, and mind-boggling people that makes you wonder that
Alice went into the Wonderland and let the music help her be who she is.

The 17-minute centerpiece, Ospedale Civico which features David Newhouse of The Muffins and
Wyatt Moss-Wellington on the choir, it is an unexpected mixture between the
sounds of a Jazzy-RIO-Canterbury groove. With unexpected time changes that will
remind you of Soft Machine’s Third-era,
Gilgamesh, Egg, Picchio dal Pozzo, and Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica-era in there with insane synths, guitar melodies
between D’Alessandro and the bass he plays on the composition, and the
Thelonious Monk-like walking rhythm for the last five minutes with a ‘60s
spooky organ, makes it sound like you are in the groove before the last 26
seconds gives it a sun lifting finale.

The swirling outer space adventure of Vescia Piscis sets the lounge groove between the keyboards with a buzzing
synth, ascending rhythm, melodic guitar and electric piano, out of the blue
drum patterns before going into mid-layered sounds as the mellotron, sax, and
synth take into the heavens whilst the crescendo beats, takes the listener into
unbelievable results. Ottaedro brings
into the elements of a combination between early Caravan and Hatfield and the
North as if they were working together for Nine
Feet Underground as if Richard Sinclair gives the band instructions on
where to go next in the composition at the right moment.

Bossa-nova grooves can be out of the blue. But with Dogface, it works into the humor
blender. Here along with Paolo “Ske” Botta on the synths, he adds into the
underwater sounds for a brief second and the Symphonic-Brazilian fun side to
the core, you could tell that Homunculus Res are having a blast on this piece
and almost as if they are dancing into the groove as Botta soars into his
magical hands. And never forgetting the homage to Sgt. Pepper-era and Harry Nilsson on the short instrumental, Paum.

This is my fourth time listening to Homunculus Res’ second
album. I’m very impressed of what is done here. Not only the inspiration based
around the city hospital which I could imagine they admired the sound of Egg’s The Polite Force for inspiration, but
they came back for wild imaginative beauty that you might want to reach into
more of the Canterbury adventures on what it’s to come.

AltrOck has scored another home run for me. I can’t wait to
see what Marcello Marinone has in stores for the label and the Fading Records
label for 2016.

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About Me

I'm a blogger/freelance writer from Houston, TX who writes album reviews because I enjoy it. Even though, I'm not the best writer, there is no stop sign for me. I have a love of Progressive Rock music, Jazz Fusion, and Early Heavy Metal music from the '60s to the early '80s. I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for nine years and have completed my degree in Music in Performance: Jazz Studies. I've been writing Progressive Rock and Symphonic Metal reviews starting back in 2008 on my blogsite and it never gets old.